Partition structure of internal space of food storage container

ABSTRACT

A partition structure of an internal space of a food storage container includes: a container body having a bottom part and lateral parts surrounding a periphery of the bottom part, wherein a transversal inner edge is formed between the lateral parts, and a longitudinal inner edge is formed between the bottom part and each lateral part; and a partition component, disposed in the container body and composed of plural plate units, each plate unit has a partition plate part and an abutting part, and at least one alignment part having a curvature is extended from each abutting part; wherein a curvature defined by the transversal inner edge being extended from each lateral part and a curvature defined by the longitudinal inner edge being extended from the bottom part to each lateral part are substantially the same as the curvature of the alignment part.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation-in-Part of co-pending applicationSer. No. 16/426,371 filed on May 30, 2019, which is a continuationapplication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/377,978, filed onDec. 13, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,351,311, issued on Jul. 16, 2019,which claims priority to Taiwanese Patent Application No. 105128688,filed on Sep. 5, 2016. The entire disclosure of which is incorporated byreference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a food storage container, especially toa partition structure of an internal space of a food storage container.

Description of Related Art

Eating food is a major factor for keeping a human being's life, and thefreshness of food should be ensured for preventing from eatingdeteriorated food and getting ill. With different eating habits of thismodern life, sometimes the food has to be temporally stored, and thefreshness of food is desired to be ensured when he/she wants to eat,thus a food storage container for storing food and maintaining thefreshness thereof is developed.

There are a lot of products for storing food, a container is mostlyprovided for allowing food to be stored, when different foods aredesired to be stored at the same time, the foods can only be mixed inthe container because there is no partition provided therein; there aresome food storage containers provided with partition plates in thecontainer, but the partition plates and the container are integrallydesigned, and the partitioned spaces cannot be adjusted or changedaccording to the foods which are desired to be stored by the user. Atpresent, a detachable partition plate structure is provided for allowingthe container to be partitioned according to the user's requirement forconveniently storing different foods.

However, in the conventional structural design, locations, for example abottom part or a lateral wall, have to be thickened because oflimitations caused by assembling and positioning, so that the spaceutilization is limited or the appearance dimension has to be enlarged.

Accordingly, the applicant of the present invention has devoted himselffor improving the mentioned disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is to provide a partition structure of an internalspace of a food storage container, in which with a structural design ofbeing mutually matched, a partition component can be provided in thefood storage container for effectively utilizing the internal space,thereby increasing the flexibility and convenience of the food storagecontainer.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a partition structure of aninternal space of a food storage container, which includes a containerbody and a partition component disposed in the container body; thecontainer body has a bottom part and a plurality of lateral partssurrounding a periphery of the bottom part, and a transversal inner edgeis formed between the lateral parts, and a longitudinal inner edge isformed between the bottom part and each of the lateral parts; thepartition component is composed of a plurality of plate units, each ofthe plate units has a partition plate part and an abutting part extendedfrom one side of the partition plate part, and at least one alignmentpart is extended from at least one side of each of the abutting parts;wherein the alignment part is formed with a curvature, and a curvaturedefined by the transversal inner edge being extended from each of thelateral parts and a curvature defined by the longitudinal inner edgebeing extended from the bottom part to each of the lateral parts aresubstantially the same as the curvature of the alignment part.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective exploded view showing the partition structureaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the assembly of the partitionstructure being transversally disposed in the container body accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view showing the partition structure beingtransversally disposed in the container body according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the assembly of the partitionstructure being longitudinally disposed in the container body accordingto the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view showing the partition structure beinglongitudinally disposed in the container body according to the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to the drawings.

Please refer FIG. 1, which is perspective exploded view according to thepresent invention. The present invention provides a partition structureof an internal space of a food storage container, which includes acontainer body 1 and a partition component 2 disposed in the containerbody 1.

The container body 1 is made of a transparent material, for exampleglass or acrylic. The container body 1 has a bottom part 10 and aplurality of lateral parts 11 surrounding a periphery of the bottom part11, thereby forming a food storing status in the container body 1.According to one embodiment of the present invention, a cover member 3can be further provided on top of the container body 1, and a top edgeof each lateral part 11 covers on top of the container body 1, therebyallowing the container body 1 to be sealed. Please refer to FIG. 4 Thecover member 3 has a top part 30 and a cover edge 31 surrounding aperiphery of the top part 30, so that when the cover member 3 covers ontop of the container body 1, the cover edge 31 is able to be disposed ona top edge of each lateral part 11, and a sealing ring 310 surroundingan internal periphery of the cover edge 31 is disposed in the cover edge31, so as to abut against the top edge of each lateral part 11 and sealthe container body 1, so that an effect of maintaining freshness can beachieved. Moreover, for allowing the cover member 3 to be tightlycombined with the container body 1, a buckling edge 12 can becorrespondingly disposed at the lateral part 11 of the container body 1,and a buckling part 32 is correspondingly disposed at the cover edge 31of the cover member 3, so what when the cover member 3 covers on top ofthe container body 1, the buckling part 32 can be tightly buckled withthe buckling edge 12, thereby enabling the cover member 3 to be tightlycombined with the container body 1.

The partition component 2 is disposed in the container body 1 forpartitioning the container body 1 so as to allow different foods to bestored therein. The partition component 2 can be formed in a transversalstatus (as shown in FIG. 4) or in a longitudinal status (as shown inFIG. 6), and be disposed in the container body 1 for partitioning thecontainer body 1 into a first space 100, 100 a and a second space 101,101 a. The arrangement of the first space 100, 100 a and the secondspace 101, 101 a can be altered according to the status of the partitioncomponent 2, so that the partition component 2 formed with the suitablestatus is able to be disposed in the container body 1 with respect todifferent foods to be stored by a user.

As shown in FIG. 2, the partition component 2 is mainly composed of aplurality of plate units 20, and each plate unit 20 has a partitionplate part 21 and an abutting part 22 extended from one side of thepartition plate part 21. According to one embodiment of the presentinvention, there are two plate units 2, the plate units 2 can be madethrough an injection molding means by utilizing a same mold, and the twoplate units 2 are oppositely arranged so as to structure the partitioncomponent 2. Details are provided as follows. At least one first pivotalpart 210 and at least one second pivotal part 211 are provided at thepartition plate part 21 of the plate unit 20 and arranged at one sideaway from the abutting part 22, wherein the first pivotal part 210 isdisposed with a pivotal shaft 210 a, and the second pivotal part 211 isdisposed with a pivotal hole 211 a. As such, when the two plate units 20are oppositely arranged, the first pivotal part 210 is corresponding tothe second pivotal part 211 arranged at the other end, the two plateunits 20 can be composed as the partition component 2 through thepartition plate parts 21 thereof being pivotally connected, and thepartition plate parts 21 can be unfolded to form the transversal statusas shown in FIG. 3, or be pivotally folded to form the longitudinalstatus as shown in FIG. 5.

Please refer to FIG. 1, FIG. 3 and FIG. 5. An alignment part 220 isextended from at least one side of the abutting part 22 of each plateunit 20 of the partition component 2, the alignment part 220 is formedwith a curvature, a transversal inner edge 110 is formed between thelateral parts of the container body 1, and a longitudinal inner edge 111is formed between the bottom part 10 and each lateral part 11 of thecontainer body 1; meanwhile a curvature defined by the transversal inneredge 110 being extended from each lateral part 11, and a curvaturedefined by the longitudinal inner edge 111 being extended from thebottom part 10 to each lateral part 11 are substantially the same as thecurvature of the alignment part 220. Accordingly, when the partitioncomponent 2 is in the transversal status, the alignment part 220 is ableto lean against the transversal inner edge 100 to partition thecontainer body 1 into the first space 100 and the second space 101 whichare vertically arranged (as shown in FIG. 4), and a blocking side 110 ais formed below the transversal inner edge 110; when the partitioncomponent 2 is in the longitudinal status, the container body 1 ispartitioned into the first space 100 a and the second space 101 a whichare horizontally arranged (as show in FIG. 6).

What shall be addressed is that: the curvature of the alignment part 220can also be composed of an arc-shaped surface (as shown in figures), orcan be composed of a folded angle (not shown in figures); as long as thecurvature of the alignment part 220 is the same as the curvature definedby the transversal inner edge 110 being extended from each lateral part11 and the curvature defined by the longitudinal inner edge 111 beingextended from the bottom part 10 to each lateral part 11, the partitioncomponent 2, whether being in the transversal status or the longitudinalstatus, can be correspondingly matched with the transversal inner edge110 or the longitudinal inner edge 111 in the container body 1 via thealignment part 220, so that an objective of allowing the partitioncomponent 2 to be disposed in the container body 1 can be achieved, andthe structure aligning and matching can be simplified; each lateral part11 of the container body 1 can be thinner, thus a designing objective ofmaximizing the internal space without enlarging the appearance dimensionof the container body 1 can also be achieved.

Furthermore, the curvature can be designed according to an appearance offood desired to be stored. For example, when the partition component 2is in the transversal status, if a rectangular food, for example a pieceof toast or a sandwich, is desired to be stored, the curvature can bedesigned to match with a curvature defined at an edge of the toast orthe sandwich available in a market, so that a freshness maintainingeffect for this specified food is provided. For allowing a user toeasily take the stored toast or the sandwich, as shown in FIG. 3, anexposed zone 220 a is formed between the alignment parts 220 of the twoplate units 20, so that the user can easily take via a gap formed in theexposed zone 220 a.

Moreover, a plurality of penetrated holes 212 can be formed on thepartition plate part 21 of each plate unit 20 of the partition component2, so that the first space 100, 100 a can be in communication with thesecond space 101, 101 a; especially when the partition component 2 is inthe transversal status, the second space 101 location in a lowerlocation can still be in communication with the first space 100 locatedin a higher location.

Based on what has been disclosed above, the partition structure of theinternal space of the food storage container is provided.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to theforegoing preferred embodiment, it will be understood that the inventionis not limited to the details thereof. Various equivalent variations andmodifications can still occur to those skilled in this art in view ofthe teachings of the present invention. Thus, all such variations andequivalent modifications are also embraced within the scope of theinvention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A partition structure of an internal space of afood storage container, including: a container body, having a bottompart and a plurality of lateral parts surrounding a periphery of thebottom part, wherein a transversal inner edge is formed between thelateral parts, and a longitudinal inner edge is formed between thebottom part and each of the lateral parts; a partition component,disposed in the container body and composed of a plurality of plateunits, wherein each of the plate units has a partition plate part and anabutting part extended from one side of the partition plate part, and atleast one alignment part is extended from at least one side of each ofthe abutting parts; wherein the alignment part is formed with acurvature, and a curvature defined by the transversal inner edge beingextended from each of the lateral parts and a curvature defined by thelongitudinal inner edge being extended from the bottom part to each ofthe lateral parts are substantially the same as the curvature of thealignment part.
 2. The partition structure of the internal space of thefood storage container according to claim 1, wherein the partitioncomponent is optionally formed in a transversal status or in alongitudinal status, the transversal status allows the container body tobe partitioned into two spaces which are vertically arranged, and thelongitudinal status allows the container body to be partitioned into twospaces which are horizontally arranged.
 3. The partition structure ofthe internal space of the food storage container according to claim 2,wherein when the partition component is in the transversal status, thealignment part is able to lean against the transversal inner edge, andwhen the partition component is in the longitudinal status, thealignment part is able to lean against the longitudinal inner edge 4.The partition structure of the internal space of the food storagecontainer according to claim 1, wherein there are two plate units. 5.The partition structure of the internal space of the food storagecontainer according to claim 4, wherein at least one first pivotal partand at least one second pivotal part spaced with an interval areprovided at the partition plate part of each of the plate units andarranged at one side away from the abutting part, so that the at leastone first pivotal part and the at least one second pivotal part are ableto be pivotally connected.
 6. The partition structure of the internalspace of the food storage container according to claim 5, wherein thefirst pivotal part is disposed with a pivotal shaft, and the secondpivotal part is disposed with a pivotal hole.
 7. The partition structureof the internal space of the food storage container according to claim4, wherein an exposed zone is formed between the alignment parts of thetwo plate units of the partition component.
 8. The partition structureof the internal space of the food storage container according to claim1, wherein a plurality of penetrated holes are formed on the partitionplate part of each of the plate units of the partition component.
 9. Thepartition structure of the internal space of the food storage containeraccording to claim 1, wherein the curvature of the alignment part iscomposed of an arc-shaped surface or a folded angle.
 10. The partitionstructure of the internal space of the food storage container accordingto claim 1, further including a cover member, wherein the cover memberis able to work with a top edge of each of the lateral parts forcovering on top of the container body.